Pádraic Joyce heaped praise on his Galway players for the way in which they managed the game on the way to beating Donegal at a windy Salthill in Sunday's Allianz Football League Division 1 clash.
The Tribesmen ran out seven-point winners despite playing two periods with just 13 men, with their shot selection particularly pleasing Joyce.
"I think we managed the game really well in the first half alone as well. Our first four scores of the game were two-pointers and the lads tackled really, really hard, didn't allow Donegal any time on the ball.
"They pressed them really hard, won the ball back and took a lot of good options in the first half which, while the gale force wind is there you'll be saying, 'We'll hit this and do that'.
"But the lads worked the ball in really well into scoreable positions and when you're missing John Daly, Paul Conroy, there will always be a question mark in your head what the lads will do. But to a man, they stood up really well today."
The Galway manager added that Daly missed the game due to a knock on the knee last week but is "okay", while Conroy had been sidelined by flu and Damien Comer is training and "hopefully will see a bit of action before the league is over".
On the red card shown to Matthew Tierney just before the interval for a high challenge on Hugh McFadden, Joyce said he was a front-line witness to the incident.
"I saw it. It happened right in front me. Obviously Mattie came in to hit a shoulder on Hugh but his head ducked down and was there contact? Probably a little bit," he said.
"Was it an unfortunate red card? I'd say yes. Donegal on the sideline were roaring for a red card which they got. We'll look at it and we might appeal it and see where it goes but Mattie's not a dirty player. But I do understand the duty of care. It's in rugby. I think it's duty of care for head injuries and making contact with the head and all that.
"But again, Mattie's distraught there because he didn't go in with the intention of causing damage to any player's head.
"I spoke to the referee at half-time and he said that there was contact to the head, that's why he gave the red so I have to accept that and cede."
Donegal selector Colm McFadden bemoaned the fact the Galway were not put under more pressure when playing against the wind on the resumption and having 13 players on the field for two periods.
"We were thinking the same on the sideline ourselves; we never really got a dominant spell in that second half, got a couple of scores here and there," said McFadden.
"When Galway went down to 13 men and if you were picking a team with the extra man during that spell, you would have said it was Galway. We have a lot of stuff to work on. You have to give credit to Galway and they showed they had great legs in that second half, with Maher, O'Neill and Kelly breaking out of defence. The physicality and fitness levels they showed is the level we have to get to."
The 2012 All-Ireland winner also outlined why his playing colleague from that success - Michael Murphy - did not feature in Salthill.
"He had a wee niggle after last week and he's nursing that. He'll be back soon again and didn't return just to make a cameo."
